Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The English Village where I work was open over Christmas, which unfortunately meant that our department had to work. The very kind Edutainers (read: educator + entertainer)* baked us some delicious Christmas cookies. Our department made them a card to say Thank you:

And to wish them a very Merry Christmas!

*If you are wondering what an Edutainer does - they perform awesome ESL musicals and game-shows for the kids that come here for the day. It's a full process from writing their own scripts, music and choreography to directing and acting. I helped with some set design a while ago for their show Imagine That.

Their department and our department work together so that during the entire Day Experience kids can visit different classes/workshops/game-shows and musicals and learn about the same theme and have vocabulary that overlaps. The current theme is Health and Happiness.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

Since most of us here had to work over Christmas we decided it would be best for us to try and go out for a Christmas Eve Dinner in Ilsan about 20 minutes away and relieve the stress of trying to cook up a feast after work. (this idea works particularly for che well since the only dish she is actually able to make mildy edible are marshmallow carrots.)

So off we rode to Ilsan...

In Ilsan we followed the Bright Lights to Western Dome to try and find a place to eat. We wandered around in the freezing cold at which point Sarah noted that it had become like a real Christmas story:

so sadly we had to split our merry troupe and take the special room at Asia Asia. And so we enjoyed our very traditional Christmas Eve meal of Indian Curry and Nan.

There was a delicious special Christmas set-menu and clearly i thought i was Mary and ate enough for two.

After dinner I introduced the gang to a little Christmas tradition that we have in my family. We call it the "R50-mall- dash"

STEP 1: Put all your names into a hat.

STEP 2: Secretly draw a name from the hat.

STEP 3: You have 20 minutes and only R50 (about $7 or $8) to buy a gift for the person whose name you have drawn.

STEP 4: Meet at a coffee shop/restaurant/chosen location before the time is up to exchange your secret gifts.

*(Side note: if you want to give yourself more time, then you can extend it to an hour and if you really want to get technical, you can disqualify anyone who does not make it back in time or who spends over the allotted amount...haha)

Everyone got really excited about "R50-mall-dash" that they wanted to try it... So we set a 10 000 won limit and drew names... and then the mad panic begins as you try and decide what to buy and where to get it within 20 minutes and with a strict budget:

Sunday, December 26, 2010

On Christmas night we snuggled up and tried to get warm in The Little Theatre with Christmas movies, cheese, mulled wine, strawberries and chocolate fondue. (i totally take credit for the strawberries and chocolate fondue idea.) but the fondue set totally belongs to Kristi.

Friday, December 24, 2010

If you live in a foreign country and you have to work on Christmas day and you are surrounded by people who are away from home over this festive-family time, and maybe will get homesick about that - you should probably do something nice for them. Here is how:

Step Six: Glue your doily onto your brown bag. (actually, you don't even need to cut the doily in half. you can just fold it over the top. I just ended up with 22 brown bags to fill and only 19 doilies. {how did that happen?})

Step Seven: Tape the doily down on the top of the bag. you can use any tape- washi tape is the best, but you can use masking tape or coloured tape. I used tape that actually looks like medical bandages. Punch a hole into your bag and thread your gift tag through with the string.

Handy tip: If you have a lot to make, I suggest cutting all the strips of tape and doilies and string before hand to make the production line smoother...

(Also - if you have male and female co-workers. start with the boys. they are less likely to notice/care and by the time you get onto making the girls' gift bags, you will have perfected it down to a fine art. Plus, you will be nervous in the beginning of not having enough chocolate for everyone and therefore be more stingy - leaving a heap of chocolates left at the end - which can be poured bountifully into the girls' gift bags.)